Can nobody stop Marc Marquez? Pol
Espargaro managed it at Jerez when
the race was shortened unexpectedly.
But he couldn’t at Estoril, in spite of a
Herculean effort on the last lap.
The younger Spaniard took his second
win in three races to stretch his early title
lead. He is looking inexorable.
Marquez (Repsol Suter) started from
pole, and led into the first corner. At the
end of lap two Thomas Luthi (Inter wetten
Suter) edged ahead, and stayed there until
lap 19. As usual, it was never by much.
By then the lead group had shrunk
to three, Espargaro the other, after
class rookie Johann Zarco (Motobi) –
prominent until then – drifted two and
then three seconds behind.
Over the last five laps Luthi also lost
touch slightly, though the last-lap drama
all but handed second place back to the
Swiss rider.
What a last lap it was. And what a
fierce competitor is Marquez.
Espargaro attacked into the first corner.
Marquez immediately regained the place.
Ditto at the next corner. And at the third.
There was just one more chance ... the
tight uphill chicane. But Espargaro tried
too hard, nearly lost it under brakes, and
ran wide.
Marquez won by almost two seconds,
the furthest away he’d been all afternoon.
Espargaro narrowly held on to second;
Zarco was safe in fourth.
Andrea Iannone (Speed Up) had been
with the leaders in the early stages after
battling past front-row qualifier Scott
Redding (Kalex), who thereafter fell back
rapidly. Then on lap 11 the Italian had a
major moment under braking at the end
of the back straight, saving disaster but
running wide.
He fought back through the chase
group, escaping to finish within 1.2
seconds of Zarco.
Behind him a grisly gang was finally
led over the line by Alex de Angelis
(Suter), from former champion Toni Elias
(Suter), Julian Simon (Suter) and Mika
Kallio (Kalex).
Smith (Tech 3) rounded out the top ten,
with Redding 11th.
Marquez now has 70 points; Espargaro
61. Luthi is third on 43, then Iannone (33),
Redding (28) and Zarco (23).
For once the last race of the day, the
droning 250 singles had a race of
pairs. The two up front were Sandro
Cortese (KTM) and Maverick Vinales
(FTR Honda). And they were still
matched to within inches over the
line.
The two had broken clear by half
distance, with Vinales leading over the
line more often than not, but Cortese
as often able to blow past by the end
of the long straight. Only to lose the
position again on the twists.
It would clearly go to the wire, and
they were side by side repeatedly on
the last lap. But it wasn’t quite that
simple. In the last corner they came
upon a gaggle of back-markers, adding
a different dimension to the sprint to
the line.
Cortese went one way and Vinales
the other, and when they got to the
flag there were separated by only six
hundredths of a second.
Portuguese hero Miguel Oliveira
(Suter Honda) might have made a
difference, lying second at the end
of lap two. He would get no further,
cruising to the pits slumped in despair
with a terminally sick engine.
Luis Salom (Kalex KTM) and Efren
Vazquez (FTR Honda) were also up
front early on, but only Salom stayed
there, joined by Malaysian KTM rider
Zulfahmi Khairuddin (KTM) by lap eight
to take the second pair. It was only in
the final lap that Salom managed to
get ahead, securing the rostrum by
just over a second.
Vazquez’s dancing partner was
Italian rookie Niccolo Antonelli (FTR
Honda), with Vazquez taking fifth. But
by the end they had been joined by
the leaders of what had been a gang
of nine for most of the race, with Alex
Rins (Suter Honda) taking seventh less
than a second adrift.
He had Danny Kent (KTM) less than
a tenth adrift; a second away came the
rest of the group, six riders covered by
less than two seconds: Alexis Masbou
(Honda), Jakub Kornfeil (FTR Honda),
Brad Binder (Kalex KTM), Hector
Faubel (Kalex KTM), Arthur Sissis
(KTM) and Alberto Moncayo (Kalex
KTM); with younger brother Alex
Marquez (Suter Honda) taking the final
point another second away.
Cortese leads Vinales 57 points to
55, then Salom (49), Fenati (45) and
Khairuddin (29). Erstwhile leader Fenati
did not finish, after tangling with Kent
and crashing out.
MOTO2
MORE AND MORE MARQUEZ
MOTO3
CORTESE WINS BY A HAIR’S BREADTH
32
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